Commodore's Notes:  Things are getting busy as the spring season kicks in. For those of you who missed it, the fun sail at Bird Island was fun.  We had wind, guest speaker, and food.  What else do you need?
     I would like to thank the park superintendent, Jock Whitworth, for taking the time to address the group.  He is a brave man.  On the serious side, I believe the meeting was beneficial for all.  The park management could see that there are many concerns held by the windsurfing community.  I hope to continue the dialog between the CCWA and the park service, and I have volunteered you guys if there is a need.  Nice of me, right?
     The calendar for the next few months surely is full.  Coming up is the South Padre Island Blowout on May 1st and 2nd.  Looks like we will have a large contingency headed for the event.  It's lots of fun so plan on going.  For more information on windsurfing at SPI, check out SPI Windsurfing.  Don’t forget the BIB BASH on May 8th.  Plans are still in progress and I need some ideas.  Current plans for the BIB BASH are to set up a slalom course and probably some sort of upwind course and time people on the course.  Grab your favorite sailing buddy and sail it together.  Additionally, we may have some devices that measure distance sailed and max speed, etc.  for those interested.  We had a suggestion for match races.  I am open for ideas.  Pot luck afterwards.
Hope to see you on the water.     --   Chester

USWA Board Meeting:   A Report from our area rep:  Guy Miller
     The Spring USWA board meeting was held in Florida. As your new regional representative I attended the meeting. Each regional director made a report for their region. The biggest issues that my report contained were The Situation at Bird Island (the disappearing beach). The USWA water access director will become involved as necessary.  The US Open: Elaine Motl has secured a new out of industry sponsor. To make this a successful venture for the sponsor we need to dramatically increase the participation back to levels the event originally enjoyed. Elaine is putting together some promotions to make this happen. In the meantime it is up to us locals to talk up this event to all windsurfers that we meet. No more excuses. This event is on our doorstep. Sign up now , or bring your  family and friends to spectate.  Getting new people (young and old) into the sport to prevent further decline. If we  don't do this the few remaining shops will go under, the manufacturers will go out of business, and we will all be out of luck.  The USWA board has announced that it will donate $12000 obtained from USWA dues to youth programs.  The previous issue is partly tied up with publicity and presentation of the sport. We see lots of commercials on the TV that contain windsurfing clips.  Advertisers obviously see windsurfing as visually exciting, yet we seem to be incapable of using that fact to attract more interest.
     At the last Olympic games it was impossible to find any windsurfing coverage at all, or any reports in the newspapers. Gil Yetter has an idea that USWA could potentially put together a short promotional video and air it at low cost on "off" cable channels. So far I did not receive any feedback on this idea.  I am trying to get a regional race incentive program going. The basic idea is to use a handicap system to rate participants in regional race events. The object is not to rank people against each other, which is nearly impossible given wide disparity in ability and equipment, but to reach levels of achievement. My current thinking is to have bronze, silver, and gold levels with some kind of token award, similar to snow skiing's NASTAR system. The USWA has asked me to design and price a pin type award. The USWA could potentially fund this effort if there is enough interest. I will be keeping tally at all the major regional races. As the plan develops I hope to be making awards later in the season.
     The reports from other regions were quite interesting and encouraging. The most interesting of these was a race in New England that went from a local sailing spot and ended at a beach called West Dennis. Because the journey takes about 40 minutes the organizers decided to call the race WD40. Some time after the successful event, the organizers received a call from the WD40 company.  Expecting to get severely chewed out, instead they received a slap on the wrist and a promise of sponsorship, TV coverage and support for the next WD40 event.
     Another topic for general discussion was the role of the USWA in the 2002 Olympic games in Sydney Australia. Up to now the governing body has been US Sailing, but the Olympic class representative would like to see more involvement from the USWA and possible adoption. It seems that funding for attendance at mandatory qualifying events as well as world class events for developing new Olympic hopefuls is almost impossible to come by. There was a request for some financial assistance from the USWA.  In order to support initiatives like the Olympic effort and Youth programs the USWA needs to increase it's membership. Ways of doing this were discussed. Aside from general publicity it is up to each of us to not only support USWA by being members, but to encourage others to join. It was agreed that the USWA needs to do more to increase awareness of the benefits of belonging to the USWA.  After the meeting was over I participated in a local Florida Race called the "Mid Winters". This race has been going on for many years, but this year's event was special because it was run from the new site of Calema Windsurfing. This has to be the coolest venue and setup that I have seen in all my years of traveling to events. The locale is on the Banana River (similar to the Laguna Madre) in Cape Canaveral. The local parks department has provided buildings for use as a shop and a rental facility in the park. This would be a great venue for a family windsurfing vacation (or a quick escape from Disney World !). They have good rental equipment and their instructors specialize in teaching kids. The race was a great success with over ninety racers showing up. Winds were light the first day but freshened the second day with the passage of a cold front. We need a venue like this in Texas!
For more information on the USWA, check out their web site:  USWA

Editor's  Puffs:  Once again we’ve reached that time of the year when our membership dips significantly because many folks have forgotten to pay their CCWA dues.  Despite earlier threats to cut off newsletters this will be the last issue for a few dozen members (including one of our executive board members).  Once again I’ll try to indicate on your mailing label if you are paid up for ‘99 by marking the mailing labels with a red "X" of members about to be cut from the CURRENTS mailing list.  We usually get a flurry of late payers at the initial Whataburger race, after they are added in, folks still unpaid are removed.
     I’ve been back out at Bird Island Basin for the past month and trying to get back into daily sailing shape.  In the process I’ve made a few discoveries about the place out there.  For example, the water temperature dropped 16 degrees in a 24 hour period in late February.  It was 71 degrees at the South Bird Island facility of the Blucher Institute on February 22 but by the next day that had dropped all the way down to 55- but that same cold front also provided two good windy days.  I’m looking forward to the soon to arrive days when I can forget putting on a rubber suit- its not as bad as putting on a coat and tie but I’ll be happy to hang up the wet suit for six months or so.
     In addition to the usual crowd of spring sailing season RV dwellers at BIB (welcome back to Jim & Pat, Kresten & Dovey,  John Lovin & Barrie Young, Conrad & Ingrid et al) we’ve also enjoyed the company of Dieter and Barbara Krins.  Dieter is the Senior Masters Silver Medal winner at the World Games held at the Gorge last summer.  He has been helping WorldWinds out by teaching private lessons when he’s not sailing faster than everyone else out there.  They plan to stay through April and perhaps return for the US OPEN.
     One more note on Bob Thompson’s sail repair service.  I took one of WorldWind’s Gaastra sails to Bob for replacement of 2 destroyed panels and Bob had it done the next day.  Bob offers a discount if the customer will remove the stitching around the panel to be repaired before it arrives at Bob’s shop.  He requested that I tape over the tears since he needs the damaged panel somewhat intact to act as a template to cut the new panel.  Removing the stitching with a stitch ripper (available at WalMart for  $1) was easier than I thought it would be.  If you break all the stitching on one side of the sail, the other side then comes out easily in one long string when you pull it from the end.  Bob instructed me not to remove the glued and stitched panel after removing the stitching (he needs to do that part himself).  By taking out the stitching I saved about 1/3 of the total repair cost -- that’s a bargain!  The repair job was first rate and the sail was as good as new when I retrieved it.

'99 Whataburger I Results:
     Some things just don’t change and, like last year, Craig Greenslit took the initial race in the 1999 Whataburger Series.  This time it was down wind slalom; Peter Nordby and last year’s most improved sailor, Elon Wong, took second and third respectfully.  Craig got three firsts and one second in the 5 heats.  Peter took two seconds and a third, fourth and fifth on his way to second overall.
     PR officer Jonathan Bright has been busy; proof of that was a Channel 10 reporter interviewing Race Director Randy Yates at the race site.
 

Biff is here!! Click here to view this month's Biff cartoon:

Bird's Eye View:	Wind Peaks Dec, Jan, & Feb 98-9 (this edition's wind peaks are pending)
After meeting the new Park Superintendent last month many folks stayed around and enjoyed a pretty good afternoon of sailing.  A lone kite sailor generally made a nuisance of himself, then crashed his kite into one of the WorldWinds containers rather close to several folks milling about the area- including the Superintendent.  Not only did his kite suffer a major rip but he may well have done in kite sailing at Bird Island Basin at the same time.  Mr. Whitworth (the Superintendent) was not at all impressed with what he felt was a dangerous activity. Click here to view the Biff cartoon on kite surfing:      Many of you have already met Dieter Krins and his wife Barbara since they have been camping out at BIB the past few weeks.  Dieter is the Silver Medal winner at the ‘98 Gorge Games in the Senior Masters Division and a Gaastra team rider.  He’s teaching advanced lessons for WorldWinds until the end of April as well as running free clinics on Saturday mornings (at 10:30 am).   Those clinics will cover things that are a bit of a mystery to many sailors: rigging, tuning, mast foot placement, fins, fin placement- all that techno geek stuff .       If you thought that Saturday, March 27,  was a good high wind day you should have been out at Bird late that evening.  Nearby anemometers registered gusts over 75mph with steady winds into the mid 50’s -- try riding that out in a tent!  More than a dozen telephone poles were snapped in half like match sticks by the winds along the road into the National seashore.  Several rigs were last seen going over the horizon at a lethal pace but no one was injured despite a fair amount of property damage.  The big storm began just after midnight and for those who experienced it ‘up close and personal’, I’m sure they won’t forget that night for a long time.       By the time you read this the shrimp boil and Easter egg hunt out at Bird  will be history.  This one wasn’t well publicized but it was designed to raise funds for the CCWA from the many visitors who come to the National Seashore for vacation.  We’ll have a full report on how it went in the next issue.	Dec     Jan     Feb   1     18mph   39mph    23mph   2     24mph   46mph    18mph   3       4mph   28mph    24mph   4     24mph   26mph    24mph   5     29mph   23mph    33mph   6     39mph   25mph    37mph   7     33mph   31mph    20mph   8     37mph   29mph    29mph   9     26mph   38mph    26mph   10   31mph   20mph    38mph   11   25mph   26mph    51mph   12   28mph   45mph    40mph  13   17mph   25mph    40mph  14   16mph   24mph    22mph  15   11mph   16mph    36mph   16   13mph   30mph    23mph   17   16mph   22mph    25mph  18   40mph   20mph    18mph   19   15mph   21mph    22mph   20   28mph   28mph    41mph   21   33mph   34mph    31mph   22   45mph   51mph    29mph  23   23mph   24mph    17mph   24   25mph   23mph    29mph  25   17mph   26mph    33mph   26   14mph   40mph    30mph   27   11mph   33mph    48mph  28   18mph   32mph    26mph   29   16mph   33mph   30   25mph   36mph   31   16mph   21mph
WHATABURGER  '99   THE SERIES
#3  May 22,  Oleander Point.... BE THERE & Help Out

Volunteers Wanted:  The club sponsored events, both races and fun events, need people to help out on and before the events.  This is particularly true for the U.S. Open.  Last year, the CCWA was a sponsor and had a booth at the Open; but we didn't have sufficient help to man the booth throughout the event.  We don't want that to happen again!  Similarly, other events suffered because of a lack of help.  How about volunteering your help this year?  Just phone an event coordinator and offer some help.

Corpus Christi Windsurfing Association Membership Application Name:______________________________________Phone: (       )______________ Family membership, list names of family members:_____________________________________ ____________________________________E-mail Add:_________________________ Address:_______________________________________________________________ City:_________________________________State:_________________Zip__________ Please enclose $20 for individual; $30 for family (1 year membership) Mail To: CCWA,  PO Box 81453, Corpus Christi, TX  78468

 

Used Gear:

Classified ads are free to members, non-members:  $5.00 Please submit the ads by the 25th of the month. Mail ads to: LooseClu@prodigy.net

AEROTECH Course Race 9.5 1995 Multiple race winner.  Great big course race sail in very good condition  $135. NorthWave RX  ‘97 quiver: 602, 5.7, 5.2 & 4.7 Each $99. Masts! We got Fiberspar & Dynafiber 460-500cm sizes from $100.  Will accessorize with other cool stuff, Whaddaya need?  Contact: racetteguyjen@msn.com '97 Mistral Screamer 268cm excellent condition $550.Custom built Priester Board 8'1" $225.Masts:  light weight carbon 2 piece masts, 430 & 460 $125 each.  AirX sails:  4.5, 5.0, 6.0, 6.6, & 7.4 from $75.Call Dick (361) 949-0232